The present work aimed to evaluate the effect of different tempering periods during the drying and different contents of water in which the drying of the desmucilled cherry coffee was interrupted in the drying time, rate of water reduction, chemical composition and quality of beverage. The coffee was submitted to two days of pre-drying on the yard. After the pre-drying, the product was submitted to drying in two experimental fixed layer dryers, using an air flow of 20 m3.min -1 .m -2 and temperature of the coffee mass at 40°C.The tempering period was initiated when the coffee reached water contents at 16%± 2%, 20%± 2% e 24%± 2% (wb). Three periods (two, six and twelve days) of tempering were employed and after tempering, the coffee to complementary drying until the final water content of 11% (wb) was carried. This experiment proceeded in a completely randomized design, factorial scheme 3x3, with three repetitions. The continuous drying until the water content of 11 %± 1% (wb) was used as control. For the characterization of the coffee quality the following analyses were done: electrical conductivity, potassium leaching, total sugars, reducers and non reducers, titrable acidity, polyphenol, total soluble solids and sensorial analysis. From the observed results it was verified that the electrical conductivity and potassium leaching values were significantly smaller when the drying was interrupted at a water content of 24% ±2%(wb), independently of the tempering time, indicating that the damages of the cell membranes were smaller in this treatment, when compared to the others. It was also verified that for the analyses of titrable acidity the treatment in which the drying was interrupted at a water content of 20%± 2%, presented significantly higher values in relation to the control. The other chemical analyses and analysis of the color did not presented significant differences among the treatments. Even at the beginning the results presented, of that the integrity of cellular membranes is better preserved when the drying process is interrupted with 24%± 2%(wb). H owever this effect is not observed in the sensorial analysis.